Premier buying three NoMad buildings, LES retail condo

Premier Equities is in the process of bagging three NoMad buildings and a Lower East Side retail condominium unit in separate deals for a total of about $26 million, sources told The Real Deal. The firm recently closed on the purchase of two of the buildings and is in contract for the rest.

Premier paid New Jersey-based developer Victor Group $12 million for 275 Fifth Avenue, and $4.6 million for the nearby 2 East 30th Street, property records show. The developer is in contract to buy Victor’s 273 Fifth Avenue for about $3.5 million, sources said.

The lot at 2 East 30th Street currently houses a five-story, 5,719-square-foot mixed-use building. The five-story apartment building at 275 Fifth spans 9,269 square feet. The adjacent four-story commercial building at 273 Fifth Avenue is 8,060 square feet. The two properties have a combined 49,000 buildable square feet. The deals for those buildings did not include air rights, which Victor will retain, sources said.

Premier is also in contract to buy a 2,860-square-foot retail space on the ground floor of a six-story mixed-use building at 259 Bowery for $5.5 million, sources said. The space, owned by developer Charles Saulson, is leased to the art gallery Soho Contemporary Art. That lease expires in three years. Premier is already developing an eight-story, 23,500-square-foot retail-and-residential condo across the street, at 260 Bowery.

Premier — led by Uzi Ben-Abraham and Yaron Jacobi — has been an aggressive Manhattan retail investor for more than 20 years, with a focus on Soho and the Lower East Side. Recently, however, Premier has stepped up its development efforts.